Ramesses III

Ramesses III, whose full royal name was Usermaatre Meryamun, was the second king of Egypt’s Twentieth Dynasty. He is generally regarded as the last New Kingdom pharaoh who held real power. His reign, which some place from late March 1185 to mid-April 1154 BC, was marked by a steady decline in Egypt’s political and economic strength, driven by repeated invasions and internal money troubles that had also troubled earlier rulers. This downturn extended into Egypt’s cultural life as well.

Though his defensive tactics slowed the empire’s fall, they left the military weaker for his successors. Ramesses III has been called a “warrior Pharaoh” because of his effective military planning. In the Battle of Djahy and the Battle of the Delta, his forces crushed the Sea Peoples—invaders who had wrecked other civilizations. This saved Egypt from collapse during the Late Bronze Age, when many other empires fell, but the invasions still did lasting damage.

He built one of the largest mortuary temples in western Thebes, now known as Medinet Habu. Ramesses III was killed in the Harem conspiracy, plotted by his secondary wife Tiye and her eldest son Pentawere. This murder triggered a succession crisis that sped up Egypt’s decline. His son Ramesses IV succeeded him, though several other sons would later rule.

His two main names are written as wsr-mꜢʿt-rʿ–mry-ỉmn rʿ-ms-s–ḥḳꜢ-ỉwnw, usually given as Usermaatre-Meryamun Rameses-Heqaiunu. This means “The Ma’at of Ra is strong, Beloved of Amun, Born of Ra, Ruler of Heliopolis.”

Ramesses III was not closely related to Ramesses I or Ramesses II. He was the son of Setnakhte and Tiy-Merenese, who wrote her name in a cartouche. Setnakhte’s origins are unknown. He took the throne during a time of crisis and unrest, likely from Twosret, and was probably a distant descendant of Ramesses II through a separate family line from Seti II, Siptah, and Twosret.

His reign is thought to have lasted from March 1185 to April 1154 BC, based on an accession date of I Shemu day 26 and a death on Year 32 III Shemu day 15. Some scholars give a reign of 31 years, 1 month, and 19 days, with alternative dates of 1187–1156 BC. An account of his coronation at Medinet Habu says four doves were sent to the four corners of the horizon to confirm that the living Horus, Ramesses III, still held his throne and that the order of Maat prevailed in the cosmos and society.

During his long rule, set against the chaos of the Late Bronze Age collapse, Egypt faced foreign invaders like the Sea Peoples and Libyans, along with growing economic troubles and internal strife that would eventually bring down the Twentieth Dynasty. In his eighth year, the Sea Peoples—including the Peleset, Denyen, Shardana, Meshwesh of the sea, and Tjekker—attacked Egypt by land and sea. Ramesses III beat them in two battles. First, he defeated them on land at the Battle of Djahy, on Egypt’s eastern frontier in what is now southern Lebanon. Then came the Battle of the Delta, where he lured the Sea Peoples’ ships into the Nile mouth and ambushed them with his own fleet. Though Egyptians were not known as strong sailors, they fought fiercely. Ramesses placed ranks of archers along the shores, who fired constant volleys at enemy ships trying to land. The Egyptian navy then attacked with grappling hooks to pull the enemy vessels close, and in the brutal hand-to-hand fighting that followed, the Sea Peoples were crushed. The Harris Papyrus says: “As for those who reached my frontier, their seed is not, their heart and their soul are finished forever and ever. As for those who came forward together on the seas, the full flame was in front of them at the Nile mouths, while a stockade of lances surrounded them on the shore, prostrated on the beach, slain, and made into heaps from head to tail.”

Ramesses III settled the surviving Sea Peoples as subjects in southern Canaan. Their presence there may have helped form new states like Philistia after Egypt’s empire in Asia collapsed. During his reign, Egyptian influence in the Levant is still recorded as far as Byblos, and he may have campaigned further north into Syria. Inscriptions of his name have been found in southern Jordan and northern Saudi Arabia, suggesting he led an army through that area. He also fought two major campaigns against Libyan tribes in Egypt’s Western Delta, in his fifth and eleventh years. By the early 12th century, Egypt claimed authority over Cyrenaican tribes, and at one point a ruler chosen by Egypt briefly governed the combined Meshwesh, Libu, and Soped tribes. In April 2025, Jordan’s Ministry of Tourism announced the discovery of a hieroglyphic inscription with Ramesses III’s royal cartouche in the Wadi Rum Reserve in southern Jordan, which the team said provides tangible evidence of a military or commercial campaign, proving his influence in the southern Levant and Arabian Peninsula.

The heavy cost of these battles slowly drained Egypt’s treasury and helped weaken its empire in Asia. The severity of these difficulties is stressed by the economic turmoil that followed.